After 17 years in the trenches of the legal system, as a trial lawyer and former prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, as many of you know I conceived of and founded Judicial Watch, a public-interest watchdog designed in effect to be a “Justice Department” for the people.

While at Justice, I had seen that “justice” was only as good as the political forces would allow; indictments were frequently brought against those who were on the wrong side of the political fence, and no legal action was often “pursued” against those who had the right politician friends, including the president of the United States. Then, after I left the Justice Department in disgust, and ultimately founded my own law firm in Washington, D.C., practicing trial law and international trade and representing small to medium-sized domestic and foreign businesses and individuals, I witnessed how judges and government officials would “cook” the results of cases and investigations to favor those who made large contributions to their political party, or who could advance their career in other ways. My foreign clients were treated particularly badly, as they were viewed as “lepers” before judges and government administrators that did not see the “advantage” in ruling in their favor.

So, in 1994, having been revolted by our so-called system of justice, or should I say “injustice,” I decided to declare myself a “legal outlaw” – a Robin Hood, so to speak – and become the anti-lawyer, bent on representing the interests of the people. In founding Judicial Watch, and after taking on corrupt lawyers and judges, American presidents and even foreign dictators, which I continue to do to this day with my new group Freedom Watch, I learned how hard it was to use this legal system against itself. Because the “politicians in robes” on the bench – otherwise known as political hacks – would mostly use whatever means they could conjure up to dismiss lawsuits as favors to their establishment patrons, I filed hundreds of cases, realizing that if only a few actually stuck, before that rare honest judge, I would have accomplished a lot. In some ways, I was like a “MIRV” nuclear missile; if only a few of the atomic warheads got through, I could do a lot of “damage” to corrupt establishment interests.

And, more than a few did get through, thanks in large part to the grace of God in having these cases randomly assigned to federal district court Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Washington, D.C. Indeed, it was Judge Lamberth who made an unprecedented ruling during the Clinton impeachment saga, that the president had committed a crime when he and his sidekick, political consultant James Carville (the Democratic equivalent to Republican Karl Rove), conspired and did release the Privacy Act–protected confidential government files of a woman Clinton had sexually harassed in the Oval Office, Kathleen Willey.

I greatly admired Judge Lamberth during my years at Judicial Watch, and he, among all other jurists I appeared before, seemed to have the guts to do what was right for the people. While occasionally taking a shot at my very aggressive litigation style in his court orders, I believed to show the world I did not have him in my hip pocket, he showed courage, not just with regard to holding the Clintons accountable, but also Republicans in his own party.

But Judge Lamberth was unique among his peers on the bench, and even he seemed to go “native” and lose interest in taking on the establishment in the years that followed – particularly after George W. Bush from his native state of Texas was elected president. To see this jurist lose his resolve and courage was a great disillusionment to me, particularly after he dismissed without legal basis the so-called Filegate case after over a decade of litigation. This was the Clinton scandal where Hillary Clinton had illegally obtained FBI files on adversaries to smear them – to try to avoid scandal and later head off her husband’s impeachment and conviction. Judge Lamberth, who now is the chief judge of the D.C. federal court, had become either tired or jaded himself in fighting for justice against a corrupt establishment – perhaps because he, like me, had paid a heavy price for doing so over the years.

As a lawyer in the year 2010, I do not know of any other judges like Lamberth on the bench; and this brings me to my point, which I have also discussed in prior columns. If we do not have an independent, nonpolitical legal system, with courageous and non-corrupted judges protecting us from the tyranny of our other two branches of government, and ourselves, then this nation is in grave danger.

And, that is why, having recently written and had published my life’s story in “Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment” and continuing to be a legal Robin Hood for the people, I am not so worried about my own destiny, as the fate of the American people and those around the world, like the brave Persian people and others who live under corrupt governments.

And, yes, our government is corrupt! It may not rise to the level of the radical Islamic regime in Iran, which executes political foes, but it is killing us Americans slowly but surely with its dishonesty, ethical bankruptcy and comprised interests.

I am now writing a new book that will outline in greater detail what is wrong and how we can wage a new, hopefully peaceful revolution to save ourselves before it is too late. But in the interim, I call upon you – the American people – to join me in doing whatever you can to play an activist role in legally fighting the many “Sheriffs of Nottingham” who are destroying our “Sherwood Forest.” Our freedom, liberty and the future of our country hang in the balance.